Dangle Boris

Readers of The New Yorker have gotten to know Boris Johnson overtheyears. So you are prepared to appreciate the full hilarity of the shaggy-haired Mayor’s latest mishap, which, yesterday, involved getting stuck in the middle of a zip-wire during an event in Victoria Park. The official cause of the failure was “loss of momentum.” For five minutes, Johnson, wearing a blue helmet, hung suspended by a harness in mid-air, keeping up a stream of burbly banter and waving two little Union Jacks like help signals. For Londoners, it was a day of mirth. #DangleBoris posts proliferated on Twitter; “He’s like a great pinata!” Marina O’Loughlin wrote. Dangle Boris at Iwo Jima! Dangle Boris as a tea bag! This year, I would like a Christmas tree decked all in dangling Borises.